Obama to propose 100 billion tax credit

President Barack Obama will call for a 100-billion-dollar business tax credit this week to boost the sagging US economic recovery, The Washington Post reported (link).

Obama will use a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday to launch what administration officials said was a new policy push, it said.

The proposal would increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, rewarding companies that develop new technologies domestically and preserve American jobs, the report said.

It would be paid for by closing other corporate tax loopholes, the paper noted, citing an unnamed administration official.

Obama’s economic team is considering a raft of new measures to revive the economy.

But with little appetite in Washington for a massive new round of government stimulus spending, with congressional elections looming in November, the White House said there would be no repeat of massive 814-billion-dollar 2009 Recovery Act.

Obama will visit two states, Wisconsin and Ohio this week, which have both been hit hard by the recession, and include crucial political races as Democrats battle to cling onto their majorities in Congress.

The reported proposals come after a new Labor Department report released Friday showed the economy lost 54,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.6 percent.

Although the job losses were much less than the 120,000 slump expected by Wall Street economists, hiring was not substantial enough to help millions of crisis-hit Americans to return to work.